Looking for phone recommendations....

SachaJ

So it looks like I could be on the market for a new phone in the coming weeks and looking for ideas on what could meet my needs.

So my list of priorities are (in order):

1) Call quality and signal strength
2) Texts
3) Hardware keyboard over software one
4) Good battery life
5) Email (In: pop. Out: smtp)
6) Browsing/Internet and so would prefer something HSUPA capable
7) Social media (Twitter, FB etc)
8) Would love the possibility of a Wi-Fi hotspot

It is a phone afterall so I want good call quality. On my old Nokia E71, the call quality kicks the arse off the Desire and Desire HD I had. On the HD, the signal strength is terrible and it keeps loosing signal, but the Android has some great features such as the Wi-Fi hotspot. Been there and worn the t-shirt with Android and to be honest I'm not too bothered with it.

So what's out there that could do the job for me or am I better off just using my E71?

cookie1977

SachaJ wrote: »

So it looks like I could be on the market for a new phone in the coming weeks and looking for ideas on what could meet my needs.

So my list of priorities are (in order):

1) Call quality and signal strength
2) Texts
3) Hardware keyboard over software one
4) Good battery life
5) Email (In: pop. Out: smtp)
6) Browsing/Internet and so would prefer something HSUPA capable
7) Social media (Twitter, FB etc)
8) Would love the possibility of a Wi-Fi hotspot

It is a phone afterall so I want good call quality. On my old Nokia E71, the call quality kicks the arse off the Desire and Desire HD I had. On the HD, the signal strength is terrible and it keeps loosing signal, but the Android has some great features such as the Wi-Fi hotspot. Been there and worn the t-shirt with Android and to be honest I'm not too bothered with it.

So what's out there that could do the job for me or am I better off just using my E71?

What about a blackberry 9780? Top for email and some great social media apps. Doesn't have a wifi hotspot though. Full qwerty keyboard (No touch screen). The blackberry service usually costs a little extra. What network are you with? Buying an iphone 4 now seems a little redundant with iPhone 5 around the corner. Many of the current Android devices will be replaced soon. Both the iPhone 4 and many android devices have hotspot support but that will consumer battery fast.

SachaJ

Yep the 9780 was on my list until I read a review. Couple of things stood out:

Signal
When we were clear and in a strong 3G signal, speed was generally good, and signal was maintained well enough, but it's clear that people out in the sticks are not top of RIM's list of priorities (for the record: we actually weren't out in the sticks. We were in the middle of a city, and still had signal woes).

On T-Mobile, we found we got far worse signal than on other smartphones. When you're in a clear, strong area, it's fine, but any trouble spots were really bad – losing signal completely while other phones had a couple of bars of Edge.


Email
Of course, you can't use the fancy Wi-Fi to do any of this – it's still strictly done over mobile internet only. As we said, we weren't exactly raving over the signal picked up by the Bold 9780, but if you've got a good 3G signal, setting up an email account is painless.

cookie1977

I dont agree with either point. While the first point i believe is subjective the second point is just rubbish whom ever is saying it. Email works over wifi or 2g or 3g. Where was that review posted?

SachaJ

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/blackberry-bold-9780-908571/review

I thought the email thing was a bit odd alright. Would I need to subscribe to any blackberry services for just pop mail?

cookie1977

Well you need to subscribe to BIS which varies in cost from carrier to carrier. For instance with three it's 9.99 per month plus classic flex max total 39.99 sim only plan. Whereas with O2 it's 40 euro for advance 150 with blackberry BIS per month sim only. You DO need bis for email to work. But once you have it it works over the network or wifi.

SachaJ

OK, thanks for that. Don't think I'm prepared to pay an extra tenner a month for the blackberry service tbh. New Nokia out soon - E7. Might just do the job.

cookie1977

If you can hang on a couple of months there will be a glut of new phones released including many dual core android devices. Don't rush it if you can.

cnocbui

The Samsung Wave S8500 would fulfill all your requirements except the physical keyboard, however the latest firmware available qives it a swype like keyboard.

Battery life is the best available.

Voice Quality / Signal (10/10)
This is a real surprise. The Wave has a speakerphone that rivals the best of the BlackBerry smartphones and it is also very loud and clear which are the most important qualities in any speakerphone. It gets better though because the in-ear speaker quality is the best I have heard to date. It is better than the Nokias I have used and better than the digital landline phone I use at work. The only slight downside is that it breaks up at top volume, but the loudness is high enough that you should never need to move it up to this level.
Signal strength also appears to be beyond average; I get constant 3G at home with HSDPA appearing more than 50% of the time. This has not been achieved by any other phone I have reviewed to date.

http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2010/06/samsung-wave-review/

SachaJ

cnocbui wrote: »

The Samsung Wave S8500 would fulfill all your requirements except the physical keyboard, however the latest firmware available qives it a swype like keyboard.

Battery life is the best available.

http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2010/06/samsung-wave-review/

Looks great. Thanks for that. Any idea how it compares to the S8530 Wave II?

xtal191

As far as I know the Wave 2 has a bigger screen and has a Super LCD instead of a Super Amoled, I think they're the only differences but i could be wrong though.

cookie1977

http://bigphonefight.com/samsung-galaxy-s-vs-samsung-wave-s8500-review

cnocbui

SachaJ wrote: »

Looks great. Thanks for that. Any idea how it compares to the S8530 Wave II?

Yes, the Wave II is inferior to the original. It has an LCD screen instead of the wonderful OLED on the S8500. It is thicker, wider longer and heavier and doesn't have a gorilla glass screen:

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3536&idPhone2=3146

The Wave 2 has Bada 1.2 OS but the S8500 can be upgraded to 1.2. The Wifi hotspot feature works a treat.

The screen is slightly bigger but with the same number of pixels, meaning it won't look as sharp as the S8500, which has a higher ppi than most other phones, excepting the iPhone.

The S8500 can still be obtained through Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-S8500-Wave-Mobile-Phone/dp/B003LBT9Q6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300639900&sr=8-1